House Leaves Highway Speed Limits Up To States

Helmet Law Mandate Is Also Killed

WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to abolish the federally imposed speed limit in another demonstration of the power of states' rights in the Republican Congress.

Safety groups denounced the action as well as the House's elimination of the motorcycle helmet provision, in which states were penalized up to 3 percent of their highway construction funds if they failed to require motorcycle helmet laws.

The provisions, similar to legislation passed by the Senate in June, were attached to a bill that otherwise draws wide support, designating 160,745 miles of U.S. highways as the ``National Highway System.''

Under the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, widely known as ``iced tea'' (ISTEA), the system map must be approved by Oct. 1 or spending on those highways will be suspended. The House and Senate must reconcile the versions in conference.

The House passed the highway bill 419 to 7 despite a plea by Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, D-W.Va., that lawmakers strip its speed-limit repeal provision.

All members of the Connecticut delegation voted for passage of the bill.

Rahall, ranking Democrat of the surface transportation subcommittee, argued that eliminating the national speed limit ``would turn our nation's highways into killing fields. It should be obvious that the death toll will rise once the states begin increasing the speed limits under the provisions of the bill. . . . This is not a matter of states' rights; it's a matter of human rights.''

He attempted first to maintain the current law -- 55 miles per hour, except 65 miles per hour on certain rural expressways -- but was defeated 313 to 112. He then moved to raise all speed limits to a uniform 65, but that was defeated 291 to 133.

Rep. Thomas E. Petri, R-Wis., chairman of the surface transportation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, defended the elimination of the federal speed limit.

``I don't believe we here in Washington should prejudge the appropriate speed limit for every part of the country,'' Petri said.

Others said 55-mph or even 65- mph speed limits are unrealistic in some states. ``In my state of California, if you drive 55, you're in danger,'' said Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, R-Calif.

The federal speed requirement was enacted in 1974 as a way to save fuel during the Arab oil embargo. When statistics showed that traffic deaths were plunging, the 55-mph limit was made permanent, later raised to 65 on rural interstates if a state wished.

``We're scared for the future,'' said the group Advocates for Highway Safety. ``Repeal of the national speed limit is going to mean thousands of additional deaths each and every year.''

The House, in a concession to safety concerns, voted 223 to 203 to impose a ``zero tolerance'' alcohol limit on teenage drivers. Currently, states are required to consider teenagers intoxicated at 0.02 percent blood alcohol content.

However, the legislation would allow states to eliminate sobriety checkpoints if a state can show that alcohol accident rates are decreasing.

The House also voted to repeal pre-employment alcohol-testing requirements for certain air, transit and rail employees.

``What we're saying here today is that it's up to the states,'' said Petri.

No effort was made to preserve the motorcycle helmet provision. Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said only one state had enacted a motorcycle helmet law since the requirement passed in 1991, and 25 states still do not have helmet laws. ``The states no longer respond favorably to any federal mandate,'' he said.

Also under the bill:

* A budgetary scoring quirk that could have cost states up to $4.2 billion in 1996 was corrected.

* Truck drivers in the agriculture industry would be exempted from maximum hours-of-service laws within 50 miles of distribution points in planting and harvest seasons.

* The transportation secretary would be barred from enforcing federal safety laws on small trucks -- between 10,000 and 26,000 pounds -- until it is determined which regulations are necessary for public safety.

* States would no longer be required to use a certain amount of old tire rubber in asphalt for highway construction.